After more than 10 years of searching for answers behind the tragedy, family members of victims told the Post they had seen the most progress over the past year.

Can the shadow cast by the 2012 Lamma IV sinking at last be lifted?

In July, they won a legal battle as the High Court ordered a coroner’s inquest to investigate the deaths, overturning a previous ruling by a lower court.

Alice Leung Shuk-ling, who lost her brother, was one of the inquest applicants arguing that an inquiry was in the public interest.

Speaking to the Post ahead of the 11th anniversary of the disaster, she said: “New evidence that has been unearthed in recent years should be presented at the inquest.”

“Despite the wait and disappointments, we have faith that the inquest will provide important answers about the ferry crash.”

The Post learned that police had begun reaching out to the relatives of the victims to ask them to participate in the inquest. While the dates and witness lists have not been determined yet, families have applied for legal aid funding for representation.

Relatives said they were hoping the inquest would examine whether Lamma IV had design flaws that contributed to its swift sinking and whether there were systemic issues relating to safety protocols carried out by the Marine Department.

Inquest applicant Chiu Ping-chuen, who lost his sister in the crash, survived the disaster. He said he was concerned that government officials and staff under the shipyard company involved might have retired or left Hong Kong by now.

“Will they still come forward to testify if called upon? I doubt it,” he said.

Inquest into Hong Kong’s Lamma IV disaster ‘must reveal full story of ferry crash’

But former lawmaker James To Kun-sun, who has been assisting the families, said the absence of certain witnesses would not affect the inquest.

“Don’t underestimate lawyers’ ability to assist the court in getting answers. It will also mean a lot for past internal evidence gathered by police to be scrutinised in an open court,” he said.

Asked how authorities would cooperate with the Coroner’s Court, a spokesman for the Transport and Logistics Bureau said it would not comment on the case at this stage as it was still pending.

The long wait for an inquest has spanned three administrations. Weeks after the collision, former leader Leung Chun-ying appointed a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the disaster.

Can the shadow cast by the 2012 Lamma IV sinking at last be lifted?

The inquiry found that the crash was caused by multiple errors committed by the two coxswains in navigating the vessels, and identified the main cause of the rapid sinking was the absence of a watertight Bulkhead.

Marine police in 2013 completed an internal investigation report which included fresh evidence and recommended that an inquest be held to determine the cause of the deaths.

Two years later, Lai Sai-ming, the captain of Sea Smooth, was jailed for eight years for manslaughter and endangering the safety of others at sea. Chow Chi-wai, the captain of Lamma IV, was sentenced to nine months behind bars after being found guilty of endangering the safety of others at sea.

In the following year, the department’s serving assistant director So Ping-chi was convicted of misconduct in public office, while ship inspector Wong Kam-ching was found guilty of perjury for falsely claiming he had counted the number of life jackets for children on the vessel.

Hong Kong leader rejects fresh calls to release full Lamma ferry crash report

During former chief executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s administration, the Department of Justice announced in 2020 it would no longer initiate prosecutions over the collision.

A decision by the Coroner’s Court that same year to not investigate the crash also disappointed families. The court had concluded the commissioner’s inquiry would “completely overlap” a death inquest.

“We did not expect a ‘no’ for a disaster of this scale,” said Leung, who then spent nine months trying to obtain the full 2,000-page police report and challenge the inquest rejection in court.

The inquest bid was first rejected in November last year by Court of First Instance Judge Russell Coleman, after John Lee Ka-chiu became the city leader in July. But the decision was overturned by the Court of Appeal judges in July.

The judges said the lower court’s definition of public interest was “too restrictive”.

They also said the Coroner’s Court would “go to the root cause of such a major maritime disaster” and hoped that the inquest would bring closure to the families, which was “regrettably long overdue”.

Ryan Tsui Chi-shing, a third inquest applicant representing two others who lost relatives in the tragedy, said: “My emotions have been trapped for years. I feel that the whole thing should not end this way.”

“The long wait for the inquest will be worth it. It’s not just for the families, but as a long overdue evaluation of maritime safety.”